Roaming Rangeley 2023 Part 2

Rangeley enjoying sunrise while looking at a hot air balloon over an Amish farm in Lancaster, PA

Roaming Rangeley Summer 2023

Lancaster, PA to Salem, NH

August 5 – 9, 2023

From Lancaster we headed to Tweed Park in Hockessin Delaware to find a geocache. Rangeley enjoyed the “Walk in the Park”. That was the name of the cache and what we did to find it. OK, state #47 down. Now off to Rhode Island, after we hike a few more sections of the AT.

We headed to Delaware Water Gap in Pennsylvania. Rangeley and I headed across the Delaware River bridge to get to the PA/NJ state line. It was kind of discomforting as the traffic is rolling by at 70 MPH just a few feet away. When the big trucks went by the whole bridge would shake. Rangeley did great. He was also looking down through the open railing at the river below. After we returned to the car we continued south on the AT. I knew there was a pond about a half mile south. Rangeley obviously loved it. We spent the night in DWG.

In the morning we drove across the bridge and took the back roads in the rain to the New Jersey High Point State Park. We parked and headed north about 1.5 miles to an observation platform that looks out at the actual high point monument. Trouble is we were in the clouds and couldn’t see anything. At the platform we met our second north bound thru hiker. He has to do about 12.5 miles a day to finish by early October, certainly doable. I let Rangeley run free, except when we had to cross a road. He was great. We picked up a New Jersey geocache as we drove to our next hike, to the NY/NJ state border. Driving to these trailheads brings us on very remote roads. For me it is fun to see things away from, but very near the trail. When I hiked through this region I was impressed/surprised at how beautiful New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts are. I, like most people think about the populated parts of these states, but there is a lot of beautiful remote regions as well. Maryland is the same way.

The day continued to be cloudy, misty and wet. I was drenched from sweat and all the branches on the trail being wet from the rains. Temperatures were in the upper 60s. I met 3 young ladies that are through hiking northbound. They didn’t start until mid May as they all graduated college this year. New York is much tougher hiking than people tend to think. There are no big climbs, but there are tons of ups and downs. The terrain is quite rocky as well. After finishing we drove to Danbury, Connecticut for the night.

Our morning started with about an hour drive to the trailhead for the NY/CT border. The border is very close to the parking so we did a short hike north, then went past the car south. At this time I was thinking we had 3 hikes planned for today so we moved on. To get to the trailhead for our next hike we drove from CT to NY, north for almost an hour, then we headed east into Massachusetts where we took off south to get back to Connecticut. As the crow flies it was less than 40 miles but probably drove close to 70 to get there. We hiked in to the border sign and decided to continue down the hill into Sages Ravine. This is one of the prettiest stretches of the entire trail. Rangeley loved it as we went past two streams.

We took off north again, planning to go into southern Vermont. We stopped at a Walmart in North Adams, MA to get a few things. When I got back to the car and started plugging in info into the gps the skies opened up. I looked at the forecast and it said heavy rain for two hours. Change in plans, we headed south and east to Springfield, MA for the night.

We continue to travel as many back roads as reasonable. I often have to give the gps intermediate stops, otherwise it sends me to a main road. Toady I did 2 stops in Connecticut on my way to Rhode Island, There were probably 20 turns in a 40 mile stretch, so you need to pay attention as well. Today we drove to a Tractor Supply store and then looked for a fun geocache. There was a local park, so off we went. Forest and a stream, perfect for Rangeley to get some exercise. In the photos below he is on lead. It is easier to take his picture that way. At both locations I let him off with no issues. Then it was off to Rhode Island, Rangeley’s 48^th state. Again, we found a small local park. The cache was literally within a few feet of a pond. There were walking paths through the woods, so we took the long way back to the car. After this it was a drive on the highways to New Hampshire for the night.

Thanks for reading along.